As Big Data Projects Grow, Security Concerns Do Too

Enthusiasm remains high for big data projects, but security concerns are raising their ugly head. A survey of 100 senior IT execs conducted by Gatepoint Research on behalf of data security tools provider Dataguise finds that two-fifths of respondents are ready to implement additional security for big data projects as part of an overall increase in IT security spending. While many have already deployed a wide range of security technologies, less than half are confident in their abilities to secure big data. Nearly three-fourths say security concerns thwart or delay big data initiatives. Delivering a managed security service optimized for big data creates new opportunities for solution providers. Most IT organizations have historically focused on network-perimeter and end-point security. With the rise of big data, they now need to secure terabytes, sometimes petabytes, of data stored in a variety of NoSQL databases. Unfortunately, not much thought is given to security until after a big data app is deployed. However, as more of these apps get deployed in production environment, it's only a matter of time before hard questions about data security start getting asked.